Will You, Miss Evans?
by eyeshadow5746
Summary: Sequel to Excuse Me Miss Evans. James has a question for Lily. He tries to ask again and again and again, but it never seems to manage to come out. Will he ever ask? And more importantly, what will Lily say?
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **It's been a little over a year since Lily and James began dating and now James has a question to ask Lily. The only problem is that the setting has to be perfect. So James tries asking again and again and again. Will he ever manage to get his question out? And when he does, what will Lily say?

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. I only own things that you do not recognize, which is not very much, this is all just for fun! Really!

**Author's Note: **This is a sequel to Excuse Me, Miss Evans. It is not necessary to read that story beforehand. I use my characters from that story and I may refer to some events from it, but it is nothing pertaining to this plot. If you're ever bored, check it out. On that note, have fun reading the first chapter and let me know what you think! I always appreciate your reviews!

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**Will You, Miss Evans? **

**1: In which James has a realization **

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"Let me get that for you."

Lily smiled gratefully up at James as he opened the door for her. All at once the crisp November air wrapped around her, making her shiver. James lightly draped his arm around her shoulder as the two of them headed out of the small restaurant where they had been dining.

"You're quiet tonight, James." Lily laughed at James' confused expression.

He simply nodded his head and they continued walking. Lily couldn't help but nudge James' side once more to try and get his attention.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked.

"Yes," James answered quickly as he snuck a glance down at Lily in her green dress and light jacket that didn't seem suitable for the cold.

"Are you sure that you're warm enough?"

"Yes," Lily responded in similar fashion with a smile.

The two continued walking in their silence and soon enough they reached Lily's flat. Buddha had been sitting on the steps outside and quickly jumped off into the night as the two arrived at the door.

"I'd invite you in, but you seem a little preoccupied tonight, James," Lily spoke hesitantly.

"It's really nothing, I'm just thinking," James responded softly as he carefully met Lily's amused eyes.

"A sickle for your thoughts?"

James just looked at Lily as if were contemplating something. In response, Lily held out her hand for James to take.

James just looked at Lily's hand as if she were mad. Lily smiled slightly, although the smile appeared more like a grimace. She withdrew her hand quickly, and acted nonchalant as if she had never extended it out in the first place.

"Let's dance." Lily finished the statement with a little twirl before she held out her hand again.

Her eyes met James' to find him staring at her as if he had never seen her before in his life.

"Right, I'll just go inside then. Goodnight." Lily kissed his cheek before turning and going inside her flat. James just watched the door for a few seconds before knocking on it quickly.

Lily swung the door open, her face flushed. "What is it James?"

James took a step inside the house and pulled Lily into a tight hug. Surprised by his actions, Lily wrapped her arms around him in similar fashion after a few seconds. James kept holding on as tight as he could.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright, James?" Lily asked yet again.

"Yes, I'm feeling perfectly fine," James responded as he pulled away from Lily and gently kissed her. Before Lily had a chance to return his kiss, James had pulled away.

"Goodnight."

And Lily was left looking at the dark street. The soft glow of the street lamp shone a few houses down, illuminating the road before it flew back into darkness. With a sigh Lily closed the door.

_I wonder if I'll ever honestly understand that boy._

**XXX**

"James! You'll never guess what happened!" Sirius exclaimed the second that James apparated into the flat.

James simply looked over at Sirius with a glare that clearly stated 'This is not the time.' Sirius, on the other hand, simply ignored it.

"Jamsie! Come on! You know you want to know this! Don't pretend like you don't!" Sirius playfully nudged James in the ribs. The same way that Lily had earlier at dinner, bringing James back crashing down to the present.

The biggest smile that Sirius had ever seen broke out on James's face.

"James, are you alright?" Sirius asked, eyeing James' happy face warily.

"I'm wonderful," James gushed, as Sirius looked on disgustedly.

"What's going on? Oh, wait, I've got it!" Sirius exclaimed as he bounced over to James' side of the room. "You shagged Lily, didn't you? I knew you had it in you, Prongs!"

"No!" James exclaimed, rather quickly. "I mean, no, I didn't shag Lily, but I have realized something."

"You're not breaking up with her are you?" Sirius asked, with all seriousness.

"No! Of course not! Where would you even get an idea like that?"

"Sorry," Sirius replied with a roll of his eyes. "I don't get it. If you didn't shag Lily and you aren't breaking up with her, I don't see what is so important. It can't be more important than the news I have for you!"

"I want to marry her," James breathed. "I've decided that I, James Potter, without a doubt, want to marry Lily Evans."

Sirius seemed to disregard the last comment as he began his own story.

"I went over to Remus' flat tonight because you were off shagging Lily and Arabella was with her parents for a family dinner that I wasn't allowed to attend; it was something about commitment," Sirius paused for a second before shaking his head and continuing with the story. "Remus is shagging someone."

A second went by in the flat where there was absolute silence.

"YOU WHAT?" Sirius shouted, his eyes bulging out of their sockets. "But that would mean that you would have to buy a house and live in it with Lily. We wouldn't be flat mates anymore! Who will I move in with? I can't move in with Remus, he'll be shagging that girl like rabbits every chance he gets. I can't live with someone like that."

James just rolled his eyes before sobering up slightly. "I love her, Sirius. I've always known I've loved her, but today I looked across the table into her eyes and she smiled back at me and for a split second it was as if we were the only two people in the world. Then the waiter came and Lily was so startled that she knocked over her glass of water onto herself. She was so upset about it and her face turned bright red, it hasn't turned that red since before we started dating. And that's when I knew that I wanted to marry her."

Sirius just stared at James. Once again the silence filled the flat.

"You realize how mushy and cheesy that sounds don't you?" Sirius asked.

James smirked. "Of course I do."

"You also realize that the one time we really need Remus he's off shagging a girl."

"Did you actually see that he was with a girl?" James asked.

"I saw enough." Sirius smirked.

"What exactly?" James closed his eyes to prepare for the worst.

"A purse on the table," Sirius supplied proudly.

"That doesn't mean that he was shagging someone," James sighed, as if he were fed up with Sirius's antics.

"Oh yes it does, trust me, I know this information," Sirius winked.

James just shook his head.

"So if you and Lilykins are going to be married, who's going to be the best man?" Sirius asked, and for the life of him, James could not tell if he were actually seriously asking.

"You," James replied slowly.

"Good. Who's going to be the godfather to each of your 10 children? "

"Are you joking? I haven't even asked Lily to marry me! How can we be planning how many children we'll be having?" James jumped.

"You don't think she hasn't planned all your children's names? She probably has their clothes picked out already. Girls always are thinking of things like that. I'll bet she's already got your whole wedding planned!" Sirius explained matter-of-factly.

James simply shook his head.

"They're going to play Quidditch, right?" Sirius added.

"Of course they're going to play Quidditch! What kind of father do you expect me to be?" James asked before adding dreamily. "They're also going to have Lily's eyes."

"Let's hope that they don't end up with those horrid glasses that you have to wear." Sirius laughed as James glared at him from behind his frames.

"How can we be talking about children that don't exist before I even have a ring?" James asked incredulously before turning on his heel and walking to the other side of the room.

"I'm going to Remus' flat," James announced. And within a second he had apparated out of the room, leaving Sirius gaping at the spot.

'You _can't_ go get Remus! He's _busy!_"

**XXX**

"It's beautiful, James!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed.

James was standing in the kitchen with his parents in their manor holding a black velvet box open. Inside was a simple diamond ring that seemed to glow from the deepest point of the stone and radiated throughout the room.

"Who picked it out?" Mr. Potter questioned.

"Edward!" Mrs. Potter snapped, "James is a grown boy, he's fully capable of picking out a ring!'

Mr. Potter simply rolled his eyes.

"Remus," James whispered under his breath.

"Not Sirius?" James's father asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"I don't think that Lily would agree to wear a ring that Sirius picked." James and his father shared a brief smile before Mrs. Potter caught their attention again.

"It's so sweet, you and Lily getting married," Mrs. Potter swooned. "I remember the first time I met her. You two were so sweet. I knew it would only be a matter of time."

James blushed. "It's been a few years."

"How are you planning on asking her? Oh! If you want to cook her a dinner that would be lovely, girls always appreciate a man who can cook. I can teach you a dish or two if you'd like." Mrs. Potter rambled happily as she poured tea for the two men sitting at the table.

"I haven't really thought about it yet," James admitted.

"Have you asked her father for permission?" Mr. Potter suddenly asked.

"No." James realized that this thought had not even occurred to him. He had just been planning on surprising Lily one day by getting down on one knee and opening up the box to display the ring, but now that his father mentioned it, Lily's parents would probably appreciate James asking for their permission.

"You should. You want things to start off on the right foot." Mr. Potter winked. "You see, when your mother and I got married, I made the same mistake that you almost made."

James looked perplexed.

"I didn't ask her father for permission first. Your mother, caught up in the moment, accepted and when we told her parents her father was furious."

"He wasn't furious, Edward. He was just ruffled."

"He was furious, he didn't give me a look that wasn't a glare until you were born and I had stayed through the labor by your mother's side without leaving or complaining."

"He was perfectly polite to you," Mrs. Potter announced.

"Shannon, he just didn't glare at me in front of you." Mr. Potter retorted. For a brief second James could imagine Lily and himself having a similar conversation in their kitchen with their children present.

Needless to say, despite the fact that he could see the conversation happening didn't mean that he wanted Mr. Evans glaring holes into his back whenever he was around.

"I've got to go."

James stood up and kissed his mother on the cheek. His father winked at him once more before James apparated straight away, trying to gather up the courage to ask Lily's father something he wasn't sure he'd be able to even ask Lily.

**XXX**

"Just breathe." James shook his head before finally reaching his hand up to knock on the door of Lily's childhood home.

_This is it. _

The door swung open and James had to blink to make sure that he wasn't dreaming.

"James?" He was sure his eyes went as wide as saucers and he blinked once more just to make sure that he wasn't mad.

"Er…yes…hello, Lily," James stumbled as he sheepishly smiled at Lily, who was watching him as if she had never seen him before in her life.

"Er, James, why are you here?" Lily asked, eyeing James suspiciously.

"Can't I come and visit you?" James mentally smacked himself. Lily didn't live with her parents; surely she would know that something was wrong.

"James, I don't live here. Why on earth would you be visiting me here?"

James just blinked at Lily, as if blinking would make her disappear.

"I just missed you." And that was the truth, James decided. He had missed her. It had been at least a few days since he had seen her, and he did get this strange sort of longing for her when she wasn't around.

"You're the one who left our date early," Lily responded with a bitter edge in her voice.

"Look, Lily, I'm sorry about that, I just wasn't myself that night. You see, I was just thinking that -" James stopped abruptly, closing his mouth tightly. He couldn't let out his secret until he had talked to her father, and that was going to be pretty nearly impossible if Lily were there.

"Alright." Lily didn't look as if she believed his excuse and she hesitantly held the door open for him. "Would you like to come in? My mom's just made tea."

"I'd love to." James smiled and his heart skipped a beat when Lily smiled genuinely back at him. The last thing he wanted was for Lily to begin to hate him right when he decided that he was going to propose.

" James!" Lily's mother started as he walked into the kitchen with Lily. "How are you, honey?"

James smiled. "I'm wonderful, Mrs. Evans. How are you?"

Lily eyed James as if she could hardly believe that he was really wonderful, but she didn't open her mouth. Her mother had already shoved a cup of tea into James's hands and was currently taking out biscuits for James to eat with his tea.

And it all just seemed to fit.

Lily sighed. The last thing that she expected from James at this moment was for him to propose. He wasn't exactly the type to commit. She knew that before she started dating him, but it seemed harder to accept when that's what she wanted from him more than anything.

"James Potter." Lily turned to look at her father, who was eyeing James with twinkling eyes.

"Mr. Evans," James began, with a nervous glance in Lily's direction he continued. "How are you?"

Mr. Evans simply nodded his head and smiled at James once Lily had turned away from the scene. James, in turn, wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and turned back to his tea and biscuits.

A bit later, after the tea had gone cold and the biscuits were crumbs, Mr. Evans and Mrs. Evans shared a long look that Lily noticed tiredly and James completely missed.

Mrs. Evans reluctantly shooed Lily out of the room, much to Lily's suspicion and dismay. This left Mr. Evans and James alone in the room and for a few seconds the room was silent as if no conversation were going to occur between the two men.

"Can I see the ring, James?" Mr. Evans asked suddenly, once the footsteps on the stairs had faded away.

"What?" James asked nervously, his eyes darted up the stairs as if he half expected Lily to walk down and demand to know what was going on.

When Mr. Evans refused to elaborate, James reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a velvet box and slid it across the table to Lily's father.

"It's beautiful." Mr. Evans closed the case and slid it back across the table to James in the same manner that James had earlier.

"How did you know?" James asked shyly, praying that Lily hadn't worked out the same idea that her father had. After all, she was a very clever witch, and the situation wasn't very complicated.

"Why else would you show up at our home looking so nervous?" Mr. Evans smiled. "I remember showing up at Rose's house to ask her father for his blessing. I was so nervous that I was stumbling over my words and my palms were all sweaty and I couldn't make eye contact with anyone."

James let out a low shaky laugh. "I must've been pretty obvious then."

"Only to someone who's been through it before. I can assure you that Lily didn't have any clue as to what was happening. She was rather frazzled by that, if you hadn't noticed."

"I thought she was trying to work out why I just showed up at your house unannounced."

"Well, I don't think she's expecting this." Mr. Evans smiled as he patted James' shoulder. "You'll be a lucky man."

James wasn't sure how to take Mr. Evans's last comment, but that second Lily bounced down the stairs. James stood up from his chair. He needed time to come up with the perfect place to propose, and he wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to keep the secret if she kept smiling at him like that.

"I've got to go." James bent down and kissed Lily's head. She sent him a glare and looked around the room frantically.

"James, we're in my parents' house. You can't just touch me however you want to! What if they see us?"

"I'm sure they'd understand." James smirked. "You're alive." James apparated, leaving Lily without having a proper chance to respond.

**XXX**

"Lily, I know we didn't get off on the right foot at Hogwarts. I know that when I first met you I turned your hair green. But see, the truth is, it matched your eyes…and even if I didn't realize it then, I know now, that, well, I love you, Lily…"

A feeble hoot came in response.

"That won't work," James muttered with annoyance. He ran his hands through his already messy hair.

"Lily, I have loved you since the moment that I first saw you-"

"You probably shouldn't lie that much." Remus snorted from the other side of the room where he and Sirius were standing with amused expressions watching James holding a ring out to his owl.

"What do you suggest I do, Sirius, God of Women?" James asked as he snapped the box shut and shoved it into his robes. It only took a second for his owl to fly away in a frantic attempt to be rid of James.

"I hate to be the one to point it out, but your owl wouldn't even marry you with a proposal like that." Sirius laughed.

"Don't you think I should be honest?" James asked timidly.

Remus looked as if he were about to respond to James' question, most likely along the lines of 'yes, honesty is the best way to go.' But before he had a chance Sirius had opened his mouth and shouted.

"No!"

James's face immediately turned a bright red.

"Why can't I? I mean, what's wrong with just getting down on one knee and asking her to marry me?"

"Prongs, Prongs, you can't be serious. Girls don't want you to just get down on one knee. They want extravagance, something that they can brag to their friends and family members about. They want something that they'll be able to share with their grandchildren. Not some simple proposal."

James opened and closed his mouth, apparently deciding against speaking.

"You can't be serious, James. You wanted to just ask Lily like that?"

James eyed Sirius warily, but finally nodded his head in either agreement to Sirius's question, or to the fact that he was willing to accept Sirius' help on the subject. Either way, the sheepish look on his face gave away that he agreed with Sirius.

"James, don't listen to him," Remus began. "I think that Lily would love for you to just simply ask her to marry her. She's not the type of girl that's only with you because you're some trophy. She just wants to know that you love her."

"Since when did you become the expert on women, Remus?" Sirius asked. "Have you ever even asked a girl out before?"

Sirius emphasized his last question with a rather large wink in James' direction. As if he were trying to get the information out of Remus that there had been a girl in his flat.

Remus avoided the question. "You haven't exactly proposed to anyone before, Padfoot. Unless you count the one time you attempted to suggest to McGonagall that you could shag her in order to get out of detention."

James looked scandalized. "You actually suggested that?"

"Remus is not telling the truth. I didn't suggest that _I_ should be the one to shag her; I just suggested that she shag _somebody_. Plus, I had drunk too much firewhiskey and I wasn't quite myself that night," Sirius explained.

"Just ask her from your heart, James. You can't expect to do anything better than that. She'll say yes, I promise." Remus smiled.

"You can't do that! Don't listen to Remus, he can't even admit to when he's shagged someone!" Sirius exclaimed.

"What should I do?" James asked feebly.

"Well, we'll need to begin planning right away. We can't waste too much time," Sirius announced. "You helping, Remus? Or are we going to be planning this without you because you don't agree with it?"

Remus rolled his eyes before grudgingly sitting down at the table next to James.

_This lot has really become insane._

**XXX**

**Author's Note: **Let me know what you think about this chapter, I'm really proud of this story. I realized that my writing was a little repetitive and the thoughts of James and Lily got a little annoying (even to me, really) so I've sort of changed the style of writing that the story is in. A HUGE thanks to all of my betas: Leah, Nanci, and Sarah, they're all AMAZING!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Sorry that it's been taking me so long to update. I've had a lot of work to be done. Once college applications are done life will be so much easier. Anyway, enjoy this chapter and please review!

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**Will You, Miss Evans? **

**2: In which Lily gets upset **

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"Sirius, I have the reservations!" James shouted as he entered his flat holding up a sheet of parchment.

Sirius strolled out of the kitchen and briskly grabbed the parchment from James' hands. He read it over once and then handed it back to James.

"What do you think?" James asked eagerly. "Do you think that she'll like it? Do you think that it'll make her say yes?"

Sirius grabbed the paper back and slowly began to smile. "You're taking her to Bermuda."

James smiled dreamily. "It'll be wonderful there. The weather will be perfect. I'll get to see Lily in her bathing suit. I'm going to take her diving and then at sunset when we're drying off on the beach, I'll propose."

Sirius watched James, who continued to smile with the same dreamy expression. "The hotel is nice, right?"

"Of course, four stars," James replied smoothly. "It has a spa."

"Brilliant." Sirius smirked. "What are you planning on doing about the beds?"

"I got two twin beds of course."

Sirius looked at James as if he were Malfoy. "Twin beds? And you're proposing? Merlin, haven't you shagged her just once yet?"

"No," James began uneasily.

"You mean you've been telling the truth?"

"Yes." James looked at Sirius hesitantly.

"This wasn't just some noble thing to keep Lily's innocence protected?"

"No."

Sirius still looked flabbergasted. "I don't think I'll ever understand you, Prongs. You could have any girl you wanted, and any girl would gladly shag you. Then you chose Lily, Miss Hard-to-Get, and when you finally get together she doesn't even shag you. Sometimes I wonder how you can be my best mate."

James just glared at Sirius. "It's not a matter of her letting me shag her, Sirius."

Sirius contemplated what James said for a minute before finally continuing. "I hope you really love her."

James simply smiled back.

**XXX**

"So, what do you think?" James asked, slightly uneasy, after Lily's hesitant reaction to his trip. It wasn't as if he had just expected her to fall into his arms and gush about how excited she was about this trip and how romantic it all was.

Okay, so James had hoped that he would get a happy reaction out of her. But Lily seemed fixed on just staring at the paper as if she were internally conflicted with her answer.

"Lily?" James asked once again.

"It's all very sweet of you, James," Lily began. "But we can't do this. What would my parents think?"

"You know, I don't think that they'd mind…" James trailed off thinking of Lily's father telling him about how lucky he'd be, and how he couldn't just simply ask Lily to marry him, it wouldn't be what she wanted.

"You're joking." James looked up to find Lily giving him a very angry glance.

"I wasn't really," James started before deciding to shut his mouth based on Lily's angry look.

"I know this is just some attempt to woo me so that I'll shag you."

"Lily, it's not like that, I ordered twin beds in the hotel room."

"James, my parents don't know that. You know that I'm waiting for marriage. I can't just go on a trip to Bermuda with you. My parents will think that we're shagging."

"I'm not just trying to shag you, Lily!"

"Well then what's this all about?"

The simple question caused such a dilemma that James was afraid he wasn't going to be able to keep his secret much longer. He looked at Lily's flushed face and settled on shrugging his shoulders. "I thought maybe you'd like to try diving off the coast. It's really beautiful. You can see a lot of fish."

Lily didn't soften to that explanation. In fact, she looked even more frightened than she had before, which wasn't a good sign.

"Flower," James began.

"James, I'm scared to death of the ocean. I thought you knew that."

James tried to recall the moment that Lily had confessed that she was terrified of the ocean. All he could remember was the one time that they went into Muggle London and went to the aquarium. Lily had smiled at all the fish and told him that she loved them. James cringed as he remembered standing next to the Thames River afterward and looking across the water at Big Ben, Lily had said that she hated the idea of swimming beyond small wading pools.

"I think I'm remembering now." James finally was brave enough to open his eyes.

"I'm sorry, James."

"It's alright, Lily. It was a stupid idea."

James stood up to leave. He gave Lily a fleeting smile and Apparated from her flat rather quickly.

"Bloody hell," Lily sighed.

**XXX**

James finally gathered enough courage to lift his face from his hands after his horrible story of what had happened with Lily. He was greeted with Arabella, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all watching him with amused faces.

"James, you should forget trying to make it fancy and just ask her," Remus suggested, earning a shove from Sirius.

"I can't believe that none of you felt the need to think that Lily may not want to just go on a romantic tryst off to some island with James. She has a job, not to mention what both of your parents would think," Arabella scolded.

"Both of our parents know what I'm doing!"

"Proposing doesn't require whisking Lily away to some tropical island, James. I agree with Remus, you should just ask her up front. She'd like that more."

Sirius looked at Arabella as if he had never seen her before in his life.

"I still think that you should go for something more extravagant. Bella, you know that's what you'd want." Sirius smiled.

"I'm not Lily," Arabella responded.

James just looked between his friends before finally sighing and asking, "Sirius, what do you think that I should do next?"

Remus, Arabella, and Peter all simultaneously rolled their eyes, but James and Sirius were already too enthralled with their next scheme of how to propose to Lily.

"James, why won't you just ask her?" Arabella finally questioned.

"Sirius is right. Lily's really special; I need to ask her in a way that will outshine whatever anyone else has ever done for her."

"I think by proposing you're already surpassing what most people have done," Arabella joked.

"Hey," James began as he gestured between Sirius and Arabella. "Do you two want these reservations? I don't want them to just go to waste."

"Yes!" Sirius and Arabella both exclaimed as they lunged for the tickets.

"I'm expecting to be paid back for those!" James shouted as Sirius and Arabella bounded out of the room to go plan their romantic vacation.

James, Remus, and Peter were the only ones left at the table.

"Prongs, just ask her," Remus pleaded. "You'll save yourself a lot of trouble."

James just waved Remus' comment off. "Sorry, Moony, I would have given you the tickets, but you're not shagging her either."

James smirked as he got up from the table and with a quick wave, Apparated away before Remus could reply.

**XXX**

"How much further are we planning to hike?" Lily asked James.

In an attempt to take Lily to some magical place, that was not where they usually were, he had settled for what he thought was a small mountain. The plan was to spend the day on a nice hike and when they would reach the top of the mountain, preferably at sunset, James was going to propose. Lily, shocked by the question and the gorgeous view, would have to say yes.

"I'm not sure. I hadn't expected it to take this long," James mumbled as he continued to hike while glancing nervously up at the sky. The golden colors were beginning to make their way through the blue and James was becoming anxious. The top seemed nowhere near and it was already sunset.

Lily sat down. "I can't go any further. This is mad, James. Why are we doing this?"

"Lily, just look at all the nature," James tried to begin, but Lily stopped him from continuing.

"James, I'm hungry and tired. We've been hiking all day and it's going to be dark soon. Why won't you just tell me what we're doing here? This isn't some prank is it? Because if it is, you will seriously regret it when I hex you off this bloody mountain."

James had the decency to look sorry. "We're almost to the top. Don't you want to at least see the view?"

Lily took a moment but nodded her head in agreement and the two continued walking up the mountain. The uncomfortable silence continued all the way until they had finally reached the top.

James turned to face Lily. Clearly noting that the sun had long gone down and that the small sliver of the moon was shining bright in the black sky.

"So what do you think?" James winced. Noticing that the view was no longer visible in the black that surrounded them.

"James," Lily sighed. "You dragged me up this mountain all day. I'm still hungry. I'm still tired. And to top it all off the view that was supposed to be so spectacular can't be seen. I want to know what is going on!"

James blinked. He had to think of some excuse quickly. He very well couldn't propose to Lily when she was as angry about the adventure. He didn't want her to remember being angry when James asked her to marry him. Come to think of it, her being angry probably would not help his chances of her saying yes. He had to think of something quick before she hexed him off the mountain. She had threatened him earlier and he wouldn't doubt it.

"Lily, I just thought that maybe you'd like to do something different for a change."

James must have looked so pathetic and hurt about the whole event that Lily didn't press it anymore. She just looked up at the night sky to see all the stars twinkling down at her.

"There's the Big Dipper."

James smiled at Lily. "I'm sorry, Lils. I didn't mean for it to be such a mess."

"I know."

James hugged Lily softly. "Let's just Apparate you back home."

Within a moment the mountain was left empty, except for the stars twinkling down from the velvety sky.

**XXX**

Arabella, Sirius, and Remus looked at James as if he were mad. James squirmed in his seat.

"James, you prat, that would have been so romantic, alone up on a mountain at night where you could see the stars perfectly. How could you have not proposed?" Arabella asked.

James winced again. "It was bad enough being there; I don't need reminders of what I did wrong."

"Why didn't you take the opportunity? It would have been perfect!" Arabella pressed.

"I just didn't feel right," James tried to explain.

"It seemed pretty right to me," Sirius responded.

"How would you know? You were in Bermuda," James snapped back, not happy to have people who weren't involved telling him that he had done something wrong.

"It sounded romantic." Arabella smiled.

"It wasn't romantic! Lily was upset with me. I had dragged her up the mountain all day without an explanation and she wasn't very happy to be up there and not be able to see the view that I had promised her. I didn't think it was the best idea to propose while she was angry with me."

"James, I think if you would have proposed she would have forgotten that she was angry with you," Arabella suggested. Sirius and Remus nodded in agreement.

"I just couldn't do it. I don't know why." James let his head drop on the table. "Why is this so complicated?"

"It doesn't have to be complicated," Arabella huffed. "You're just making it that way."

"Not intentionally!" James retorted.

"Why don't you try proposing to her when you're comfortable? Being someplace that you've never been can't make it any easier, especially since you can't guess her reaction," Arabella suggested.

Suddenly an idea formed in James' mind that was so perfect that he knew he couldn't sit at the table trying to figure out what went wrong a minute longer.

James quickly ran out of the flat mumbling something that sounded surprisingly like 'Quidditch' under his breath.

"Oh Merlin, no," Arabella pleaded, wincing at the thought of James trying to propose while playing Quidditch.

**XXX**

Lily smiled as the wind wove its fingers through her long red hair. The sun was streaming down from a crisp patch of blue sky that was a sight for sore eyes. It had been cloudy and miserable lately because of all the rain, and seeing the sun was certainly a pleasant surprise for Lily.

"Watch out!" James shouted from across the pitch. Lily quickly swerved her broom to the side allowing James' Quaffle to slip right through the makeshift hoop.

Lily sent James a halfhearted glare. At first she had been rather reluctant to join James on his sudden need to play Quidditch, but as the day had dragged on and the sun had burst through the clouds Lily felt that there was no place she'd rather be than flying hundreds of feet above the ground. There was nothing quite like being so disassociated from the earth to make you feel as if you had no worries in life whatsoever.

James flew up next to Lily and eyed her cautiously. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

Lily flashed James a brilliant smile. "Of course."

"It's just, we hadn't played Quidditch in a while, and I was beginning to miss it."

Lily nodded in agreement before taking off toward the other side of the pitch. Once again, the feeling of the wind in her hair calmed her nerves. She was so engaged in flying that she failed to notice James' sweaty palms.

The Quaffle had no problem being tossed into the hoop James was guarding, as Lily seemed to have no problem holding the ball. On the other hand, James was so nervous about what he was about to try and do that he had problems holding onto the ball as it was, much less throwing it into a hoop.

"James, are you alright?"

He simply nodded his head in response and tried to calm his nerves by closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"James!" Lily shouted.

But it was much too late for that. James had failed to open his eyes to see the Quaffle flying at him, quite quickly, and before he knew what was happening, the Quaffle had hit him soundly in the head.

In any normal situation, James would have been able to hold onto his broom and come out with a mere headache. But this was not a normal situation; James' palms were sweating so profusely that he had trouble grasping the broom handle as it was. The sudden blow to his head caused James' hands to slide off the handle, and coincidentally caused James to plummet to the ground.

There was a thump, and then everything went black.

**XXX**

"James Potter!"

James faintly registered the fact that his name was being shouted out, however, it was much easier for him to remain in his own hazy world where he didn't have to face Lily. It would be complicated for him to ask her to marry him now that he had just managed to be knocked off his broom when he tried to regard himself as a heroic Quidditch player.

"You are impossible," Lily breathed as she whispered an incantation under her breath.

Instantly the lovely hazy world that James had made his home had disappeared and he found himself looking straight into Lily's green eyes.

"Hi," James spoke. He opened his mouth again as if to elaborate, but seemed to decide against it. He hadn't quite decided how he was going to explain himself.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked as she ran her hand across James' head, pushing his hair back off his forehead.

"Yes," James managed to choke.

He hadn't expected Lily to be so unquestioning toward the accident. He had expected a long lecture telling him to pay more attention on his broom and to stop daydreaming, maybe even Lily ranting about how he could be daydreaming about another witch.

"What were you bloody thinking? You weren't bloody paying attention! You could have been hurt!"

That was more like it.

"You should really pay more attention, James. You may be able to get away with it a few times but eventually you're going to fall and severely hurt yourself. Then where will we be?"

James was about to ask Lily what she was thinking when she wasn't paying attention earlier, but he decided that in this situation that clearly wasn't the best decision.

"Sorry," he managed to mumble.

Lily's eyes met his again as she smiled softly at him and once again reached up to push his hair out of his eyes. "You really should be more careful."

"I know." James let out a sigh that he had been holding in as he closed his eyes and tried to sit up straight.

Lily pushed him back down. "You really shouldn't get up just yet. You were knocked out cold."

"Well, I can't very well lay out here all day," James retorted.

Lily winced. "James, you're on the sofa. I brought you inside."

James looked around and true to Lily's word they were inside his flat. Sirius came out of the kitchen just that moment holding a potion that didn't look too pleasant.

"Well done, Prongs." Sirius winked before strolling out of the room.

"How'd you manage to get me inside?" James asked as he eyed the potion.

"I'm a witch," Lily explained. "I levitated you." The tone was annoyingly patronizing.

"Right."

Lily leaned down to kiss James's cheek softly. "You really did have me worried there for a moment."

James managed to turn his head, despite the raging headache, and capture Lily's lips with his own. He felt her relax next to him as she kissed him back. James sunk back into a different hazy state that eerily reminded him of being unconscious.

"Evans, you should have better conduct with your patients," Sirius snickered as he walked past the sofa. "No snogging allowed."

James groaned and sunk back into his pillow as Lily lifted up the potion and tried to convince James to drink it. After the last disgusting drop had been cleared from the cup, James found himself unable to hold his eyes open any longer.

**XXX**

"You know, James," Arabella began as she watched the stream of golden honey slide into her tea. "If you have problems asking Lily, why don't you try writing it in a note?"

James considered this for a moment. "Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?"

"I agree, James should ask Lily in person. It's the same concept as asking someone out or breaking up with someone. You don't write it in a note."

"Moony, I know for a fact that you asked that blonde Hufflepuff you fancied out through a letter," Sirius laughed.

"That's not how it happened. I just sent her the details in a letter."

"No, that's not what happened," Sirius retorted. "You had those little boxes that said to check yes or no. You can't tell James that he can't ask Lily to marry him in a letter."

"That wasn't me, that was you, Sirius. You know I hated those stupid boxes."

James laughed into his tea as he listened to Sirius and Remus bicker about who had asked out the blonde Hufflepuff. Despite the lightness of the conversation, James really was worried about what he should do. He wasn't sure if Lily would want for him to ask her in person or if she would prefer a letter.

Arabella seemed to sense James' discomfort. "You know, James, if you were to be in the room when she got the letter maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

"What do you mean?" James asked curiously.

"Well, what if you were to just write her a short letter beginning everything. You could write how much you love her and that you want to spend the rest of your life with her. By the time she got to the end, she would know what you were about to do and maybe it wouldn't be so hard to just get down on one knee and ask her to marry you. That way she would get the excitement of a proposal that wasn't traditional and she would have you ask her."

James smiled. "I think this might be the best idea yet."

Sirius looked slightly put down, but he quickly just turned back to Remus and continued arguing that he had never had any problems asking girls that he fancied out on dates and that Remus had always been the shy one.

"Maybe it was Peter," James suggested with a coy smile that showed that he knew that it hadnt been Peter at all. Sirius and Remus decided it was a good enough solution and at once the room fell silent.

"I'm going to go find some parchment," James mumbled as he flew out of the room and moments later returned with a quill and parchment.

For the next hour or so the only thing that filled the room was the sound of tea being stirred and the quill constantly scratching the parchment. James furrowed his brow once more. He couldn't figure out how he should word the sentence. Should Lily be a bright summer day or should she be the glowing sunrise in his heart?

Arabella, who had been reading over James' shoulder steadily for a few minutes, let out a snort of laughter.

"What?" James demanded.

"You don't need to write her a novel. She'll understand what you're trying to say if you just write that you love her and that you want to marry her."

"I don't know, that doesn't seem to show exactly how I feel," James explained as he eyed his long parchment.

"You're just going to make yourself more nervous by waiting for her to read this whole letter. And I can guarantee that Lily will find some parts funny. It is rather cliché."

James sighed. "What do you think I should cut out then?"

Arabella grabbed the parchment from James and quickly ripped it up into tiny pieces and scattered them across the table. She pulled out a new piece and set it down in front of James.

"First just tell her that you love her more than anyone else you've ever met before and that you're never going to stop loving her. Write that you'll still love her when you're one hundred and twenty. Tell her that you can't envision your future without her by your side," Arabella directed.

James began scribbling everything down on the parchment, which turned out to be much shorter than the last one. "Is that it?"

"That's all she's going to want to hear from you. She doesn't need you to compare her eyes to dreadful potion ingredients."

James blushed but simply folded the letter up. "I guess tonight will be it."

The three mates occupying the room smiled at each other. There was no possible way that James would be able to crawl out of this one.

**XXX**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **Okay, I lied. College applications are done and life is not any easier. I'm switching my statement to after AP tests. Please review! It makes my life so much happier!

………………………………………………

**Will You, Miss Evans? **

**3: In which a letter is delivered too late**

………………………………………………

James arrived in front of Lily breathless. He had Apparated as quickly as he could and he was still slightly nauseated from the sensation.

"Hi, James."

"I'm sorry for just barging in like this, I just had to ask you an important question," James explained as he felt himself grow bright red. He averted his eyes from Lily's.

"Alright."

James winced, but kept his eyes facing the ground. He figured it was easier for him to pretend to have not heard Lily's response while he waited for his owl to arrive.

"James?" Lily asked hesitantly.

At that moment James felt it safe to raise his eyes to the window. He had sent his owl off with the letter just moments before he Apparated to Lily's flat. He wanted to make sure that he was there when his owl arrived and that he saw the look on Lily's face before he had to ask her the biggest question of his life.

Through the clouds James saw his trustworthy owl flying with the piece of parchment attached to his leg. The butterflies that had already rested in James' stomach went into overdrive.

"James, you don't look so well," Lily said as she took a step forward and placed a hand on James' arm.

James closed his eyes to prepare for the tapping that was sure to come on the window. Instead, James felt Lily's fingernails dig deep into his arm as a loud thump sounded throughout the room.

He cracked open one of his eyes in just enough time to see his brown owl against the window, before seemingly floating down to the ground.

"Bloody hell!" James shouted after the initial shock had passed and he realized just what had happened.

His owl had been carrying the letter that was supposed to jump start James' proposal speech. Lily was looking at James with an odd expression, but James had to get down to get the letter from his owl before Lily saw it.

"James, you're turning white," Lily spoke finally.

James didn't respond. He just dashed out of Lily's flat and began to run down the stairs to his owl. James reached the owl and with a swift motion, tore the letter away from him and shoved it down his pocket.

"James, what is your owl doing here?" Lily asked curiously.

It was in this moment that James could have simply pulled out the letter from his pocket and handed it to Lily. She would have opened it and read through it. James could have then proceeded to get down on one knee and pull out the ring that he had in his pocket.

However, James was not thinking clearly as he wasn't quite sure how to explain why his owl had been coming to deliver a letter to Lily. He also was slightly swayed by the fact that his owl had been stupid enough to fly into Lily's window.

"I can't believe he flew into the window." James winced. It wasn't the suave way he had planned on handling the situation. Everyone had made it a point of telling him that he needed to let go of his need for everything to go exactly as planned, otherwise he would never ask. He clearly hadn't wasted any time in messing up again.

"That's my fault." Lily had a pained expression on her face. James didn't have the energy or the willpower to be angry that Lily had almost killed his owl.

"It's not your fault that he can't see the reflection." James laughed trying to make light of the situation, but his owl seemed to be very injured.

Lily shot James a very worried look, but she kept her mouth closed.

"Oh please, Merlin, don't be hurt," James whispered as he hovered over his owl.

"James," Lily began.

"Lily, do you know any reviving charms?" James asked as he prodded the owl once more.

Lily waved her wand and muttered something that James didn't register. A feeble hoot sounded and James' face filled with a smile. "Thank you!"

"James, I charmed the windows so that they wouldn't have reflections appear," Lily explained. "I don't know why, I didn't think that owls would be trying to get in, but it just seemed like an interesting charm…" Lily trailed off as if she had simply run out of excuses.

"It's alright," James sighed. He tried desperately to keep the sorrow out of his voice but some of it managed to weave through his words.

He knew that Lily had made the connection when she simply stood up and turned to leave. "I'll talk to you later."

"Lily flower," James spoke. He had been deep in his thoughts of what could have happened. He could have just asked her. He didn't need to be so worried about the fact that his owl hadn't arrived on time. They could have been laughing about his owl flying into the window by now.

"They're never going to believe me," James growled as he stood up and gingerly set his owl into the air telling him to go home.

**XXX**

"You know what you're supposed to do then, Sirius." James rubbed his palms on his pants.

"It was my idea, of course I bloody know what to do," Sirius responded.

James went over the plan once more in his mind. He was taking Lily into Muggle London for lunch. He had found the coziest pub where they could celebrate over fish and chips after.

_It really isn't the most romantic plan._

James tried to push the thought out of his mind. Sirius had convinced him that Lily would love this plan and that keeping it casual afterward would be something she would love. Arabella had even agreed. The fact that she was Lily's best mate gave James some slight comfort.

Sirius had somehow rigged the tube so that as they approached Victoria's station, which is where he and Lily would be getting off, an announcement would come over the intercom. The message would of course carry James' proposal.

The only catch was that he had to make sure that he caught the right train. James was standing in a long line to buy tickets with Lily at a Muggle machine.

"Can't it go any faster?" James whined.

Lily only sent James a glare in response. James was sent back into his thoughts; Sirius had insisted there was a popular pub near Victoria's station that James and Lily would love. He couldn't put a finger on it but he didn't quite trust Sirius' judgment on where he would be taking Lily.

"James, where are we going?" Lily asked as she began to insert strange coins into the machine.

"I don't know," James began. He quickly had to finish his sentence as Lily turned to shoot him a glare. "There's this pub that Sirius suggested we go to."

"Sirius is sending us to a Muggle pub in this heat?" Lily growled as she pushed some of her hair away from her face.

James was inclined to agree. It was really humid, especially in the Underground station. He let out a sigh; it had been a while since he had been inside King's Cross and walking past platform nine had brought back memories of his days at Hogwarts.

_Maybe our children will someday be going to platform 9 ¾ for their first time. They'll look up at the large clock to make sure they're not late, and then they'll wave goodbye to us as their train goes off._

James was brought out of his memory by Lily's voice. "James, do you by any chance have a pound on you?"

James looked at Lily as if she were insane, before realizing that a pound was Muggle money. "No, don't you have enough?"

When James realized just what Lily had asked him, he suddenly became very nervous. If Lily couldn't find her money soon, they would miss their specific train. They couldn't miss their train. They just couldn't. James craned his neck to try and read Lily's watch.

Four minutes, they had four minutes. Four minutes was more than enough time for Lily to find a spare pound on the bottom of her purse and for them to navigate their way through the station and get on their train.

Lily was still shifting through her purse and James could sense the people behind them growing impatient.

Three minutes…

"Bloody hell!" Lily exclaimed as she finally pulled out one last coin. "We are so lucky, James."

James smiled nervously. They had one and a half minutes remaining until their train departed. Sirius had assured James that the trains were always running late and that they could afford to be a minute or so late, but James was becoming increasingly nervous when they got up to the turnstile.

There was an old lady who appeared to have the strap of her bag stuck on one of the metal poles. James winced as she feebly tried to pull her strap off of the pole.

He couldn't help but tap his foot impatiently.

"James!" Lily hissed as she kicked his foot.

James didn't even have the courtesy at the moment to appear embarrassed. "Lily, we're going to miss our train!"

"Don't worry, they're always running late, James. And if we miss it we'll just catch the next one. They only take every ten minutes or so."

"Lily, we have," James grabbed Lily's watch. "Negative forty-nine seconds."

Lily rolled her eyes as the line began moving. As James and Lily stepped out onto the platform, James caught their train moving away from the tracks.

James winced but tried to keep what was going on away from Lily. He prayed that Sirius would have enough time to stop the announcement. Sirius could get in trouble for performing a charm like that, and if it weren't even necessary, James would never be able to live it down.

"James, don't look so worried. We can catch the next train and get to the pub just fine." Lily rubbed James' arm lightly.

It wasn't until James was sitting in the pub with a big batch of fish and chips in front of him that he believed that maybe Lily was right about not worrying. After all, they did still get to the pub and Lily was enjoying herself.

_But you didn't propose…_

James tried to push the nagging voice out of his mind, but only successfully managed in pushing it to the back of his mind.

**XXX**

Remus hesitantly walked up to James, who was hunched over a parchment in the kitchen of the flat that he shared with Sirius. Remus had heard that the last two plans Sirius and James had concocted had failed. He let out a chuckle to see that James was once again hard at work. It wouldn't hurt James to listen to Remus just once, but he supposed things would always be the way that they were. James would still take Sirius' advice over his own until he possibly couldn't hold onto it anymore.

"What's the newest plan?" Remus asked.

James turned around quickly, dropping his quill in the process. "Moony, don't scare me like that! I thought you were Lily!"

"Do I sound like a woman or does Lily sound like a man?" Remus sat down across from James and pulled the parchment so that he could read it easier.

"Are you seriously planning this?" Remus asked.

James simply nodded his head.

"You can't do this. It'll never work."

"It's going to work and when Lily's bragging to everyone about how romantic my proposal was, you aren't going to get any of the credit," James said.

"You're confident, Prongs." Remus shook his head; there was no way that he would want credit for what James was just about to attempt. "It's a complicated charm."

"I've been practicing," James responded smugly.

"Who taught you?" Remus asked curiously.

"Sirius."

Remus closed his eyes and tried not to laugh. Sirius was the least talented at Charms. James' strength was in Transfiguration and Remus' was in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Lily's the one who would know how to do this charm correctly," Remus pointed out.

"I can't very well ask Lily." James looked up just long enough to give Remus an exasperated look.

"No, you can't, but someone else could pretend that they want to propose and ask Lily," Remus suggested.

"Who? Sirius can't pretend to ask Arabella because she's Lily's best friend and she'd remember something like that. They can't just pretend to get engaged so that I can ask Lily. I can't ask them to put a façade on like that. You're insistent that you're not shagging that girl and Peter doesn't have a girlfriend."

"If you're so sure that the charm will work, why don't you just have Sirius ask Lily? Once you've used the charm to ask her to marry you, she'll know it wasn't for Sirius and Arabella," Remus explained.

James appeared to have finally understood what Remus was telling him. "That's brilliant!"

Remus just nodded slightly as James looked up with a glint in his eyes that caused Remus to feel nervous. Sirius chose that moment to walk into the kitchen and begin to shuffle through the cabinets.

"Padfoot!" James exclaimed happily. "I have an idea."

Sirius smirked and sat down across from James. "What's the newest plan?"

"You need to ask Lily how to perform this charm, but say that it's for Arabella."

Remus noticed that there was no mention of his name in this plan. He found that oddly comforting in the fact that if the plan backfired Sirius would have no intention of harming him.

"I can't do that! What if Arabella finds out that I'm planning on proposing and then she finds out I'm not!" Sirius exclaimed.

"No, once you get the charm from Lily, I'm going to use it to propose and then she'll realize that the charm was for me, not for you," James explained.

Sirius hesitated before nodding in agreement. "As long as this one doesn't get messed up."

"Don't worry, I wasn't quite sure how it'd work until Remus explained what he meant," James added.

Remus hid his head in his hands. This was never going to work out and he was going to be killed, perhaps mauled to death by a big black dog.

Sirius shot Remus a warning glance. "I guess it'll be okay. Just don't mess up."

"Assuming you teach me the charm correctly, it'll all work fine." James smirked.

Remus sighed. There was no way that anyone was going to come out of this still happy with each other. Sirius and James already had someone to blame and unfortunately he was left with no one.

**XXX**

"Lils!" Sirius exclaimed as he bounced into Lily and Arabella's flat.

Lily was sitting at the table with parchment surrounding her. Her hair was pulled up out of her face messily and Sirius looked around at the mess that covered the kitchen.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Working," Lily snapped.

Sirius winced. This was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

"Arabella's not here right now, she went to lunch with her cousin." Lily didn't even bother to look up from the parchment on which she was furiously scribbling.

"I didn't come to see Bella," Sirius replied as he sat down in the chair across from Lily, gently pushing some parchment away from where he was sitting.

"What do you want?" Lily asked in exasperation.

"I need you to teach me a charm," Sirius whispered even though he was sure that Arabella was not in the room and that even if she were, he could explain that he was doing this for James.

"Why?" Lily asked. She still hadn't fully acknowledged his presence, as she kept frowning at all the parchment in front of her.

"Lily, this is important!" Sirius exclaimed finally. He slammed his fist down to prove his point.

Lily finally looked up and glared at Sirius. "What is it then?"

"I'm going to propose to Arabella," Sirius whispered. The words sounded foreign in his head and he was glad that he had gotten it out right. He hadn't spilt that it was James who was trying to propose.

Lily stopped sneaking surreptitious glances at her parchment. "You are?"

"Yes, I am. Why is that so hard to believe?" Sirius responded, trying his hardest to put on his hurt puppy face.

Lily just shook her head. "What charm do you want me to teach you?"

"Well, I was thinking, that I could charm the words to appear written in the sky. And since you're so talented with charms I figured you would be the one to ask." Sirius smiled charmingly.

"I can teach you that charm," Lily sighed as she stood up from the table.

"What do you think?" Sirius asked, wanting to make sure that he wasn't ruining James' proposal plans.

"I think Arabella will love it." Lily smiled thoughtfully for a second before turning to Sirius with her wand out to begin instruction.

"What do you think personally?" Sirius asked.

"I don't think it matters what I think personally," Lily said hesitantly.

"Right." Sirius thought quickly. "I'm just so nervous."

Lily gave Sirius a small smile and began to instruct him on the charm.

**XXX**

"You have to make sure that you pronounce every word very clearly. Lily made a point of telling me that twenty times. The slightest chance that it could be a different letter can ruin the whole sentence. You don't want to be proposing to Mily or Hily." Sirius laughed as he patted James on the back.

James just smiled nervously. "Thanks for helping, Padfoot."

"If you mess this up then you're going to be dead. Lily thinks that I'm proposing to Arabella and she's bloody thrilled." Sirius emphasized his annoyance by rolling his eyes.

Remus and Lily walked into the room at that moment causing the conversation to stop. James smiled at Lily nervously. He failed to notice that Remus was standing off to the side looking very nervous about the whole event as well.

"Would you like to go for a walk, Lily?" James asked, his voice a notch higher than usual.

Lily nodded.

"I need to talk to Remus." Sirius winked.

"For the last time, Padfoot, I was not shagging her!" Remus exclaimed as he threw up his hands and walked out of the room.

Lily eyed the boys before pulling James out of the house with her. The two walked in silence. Lily was humming a soft tune under her breath that James couldn't recognize. He smiled knowing that it was probably because she was humming notes out of tune as she always managed to do.

"It's a beautiful day," James spoke.

Lily turned to look at him. "It's nice."

To tell the truth, the day wasn't perfect. There were a few scattered clouds that covered half of the sun, but there was a clear patch of blue sky that would make James' plan work perfectly.

James slowed down his pace for just a second and tried to mumble the spell under his breath. Lily didn't seem to notice that he was no longer by her side.

"Lily, will you marry me?" James whispered hurriedly.

He glanced at Lily quickly and then looked up in the sky to see his accomplishments.

Lily let out the loudest snort of laughter that he had ever heard. He winced as he too saw just what was written in the sky.

"Bily, will you carry me?" James mouthed incredulously.

"It's funny, because that's the same charm I just taught Sirius. I'd imagine he's going to want to learn a new one after hearing that someone just used it." Lily laughed, her green eyes shining.

"Why do you think that was a proposal?" James asked without meeting Lily's eyes.

"It has to be, 'c' and 'm' are very commonly misplaced letters."

James noted how matter-of-factly Lily spoke, as if she were at work and explaining the spell to a beginner.

Lily laughed again. "A girl somewhere must be really frustrated to be proposing."

"What's wrong with a girl proposing?" James asked nervously.

He realized just after he asked the question how ironic it was that he and Lily were having this conversation since Lily was holding the decidedly male point of view.

"Nothing's wrong," Lily mumbled. "It's not the most romantic way to propose though, is it?"

James' heart was caught between deep embarrassment and overwhelming relief. It wasn't exactly his idea, but he had planned on carrying it out, and the fact that Lily had no idea that he had been planning it caused him to be thankful that he had muttered the spell.

"I suppose not," James agreed as the two walked back to the flat.

**XXX**

"James, where are we going?" Lily asked.

"To the park," James responded smoothly.

This had been his idea. Lily's comment on how unromantic the last idea had been prompted him to bring her to a place where they had a history.

First off, he had shouted about how frustrated he was because he kept getting interrupted while he was trying to kiss Lily. Then, he accidentally blurted out that he was in love with her.

He hadn't meant for it to come out, not that he was unhappy with the result, but it had been a mistake. They were swinging and then all of a sudden he had just told her.

James smiled to himself as he swung his arm happily. "Would you like to visit the swings or the sandbox first, Flower?"

Lily glared at James as she grasped his hand in hers. "Can't we skip them?"

James just shrugged as they kept walking. He pushed back part of Lily's bright hair away from her eyes, stumbling a little over the sidewalk from his sideways walking.

"You should pay attention to where you're going." Lily giggled softly as the two continued to walk in silence.

James found the silence between them surprisingly comfortable and had almost prepped himself to just get down on one knee and propose once he found the most beautiful spot in the park, however, he failed to notice how overcast the day had become. The sky looked rather dreary as it was covered with dark clouds.

"It's raining," Lily spoke finally.

Indeed, the droplets of water were coming down from the sky at a very fast rate. James cursed under his breath at his luck. The rain was coming down at a very fast rate and James could barely see Lily through his wet eyelashes.

He did manage to catch the brilliant smile that Lily sent his way and her laughter as the two ran through the park, trying to get away from the Muggles so that they wouldn't be seen Apparating away.

**XXX**

James attempted to quietly sneak into the kitchen where the table was set nicely. He was at Lily and Arabella's flat where he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter would be joining Lily and Arabella for dinner.

He knew which chair was Lily's and he quickly whipped out a piece of parchment from his robes and taped it to her glass. James took a step back to admire his handiwork.

The piece of parchment very simply read: 'Lily, will you marry me?' It was simple and James had a feeling that it was different and Lily didn't appear to want a grand announcement made in the sky for the world to see, but maybe she would like a short announcement around her friends.

James quickly padded out of the kitchen and joined the rest of the group where no one seemed to notice that he had disappeared for a few minutes.

"Moony, you didn't bring your friend," Sirius teased.

James rolled his eyes as he joined everyone. Sirius was not about to stop quest of finding out who Remus was spending so much time with.

James laughed at Remus' embarrassed face and sat down next to Lily, who smiled up at him slightly.

"James, who do you think Moony is shagging? Could it be someone from Hogwarts?" Sirius asked with a glint in his eyes that James distinctly remembered.

James just shrugged his shoulders and looked back at Lily who seemed to have remembered the mysterious glint. "I don't think it really matters, Padfoot."

James looked scandalized and Remus appeared relieved.

"You can't try and drag us into this, Sirius, James and I remember having this same conversation with you about us." Lily smirked as she leaned back into the sofa.

"It's a completely different situation. I knew that you two wanted to snog each other and I was trying to help you get on your way," Sirius explained.

"It's not that different," Lily retorted.

"I just want to know!" Sirius exclaimed.

"James, can I talk to you?" Arabella asked.

James was confused for a split second until he realized that Arabella was standing in the kitchen. A spasm of fear went through his body as he looked over at Lily, who appeared to be wondering why Arabella needed to talk to James.

Arabella blinked as James realized that she clearly wasn't planning on giving him an explanation to give anyone when he went back. He grudgingly got up from his spot on the sofa and walked to the kitchen.

"What's the matter?" James asked, fully knowing why Arabella needed to talk to him.

He hadn't expected the rolled up piece of parchment to come flying at his face.

"What are you doing?" James exclaimed.

"You can't bloody ask Lily like that! What are you bloody thinking?" Arabella growled.

"Well, I can't seem to get anything right, and that seemed to be a basic foolproof idea." James shuffled his feet.

"You have to listen to me. Sirius is getting you into too much trouble. A few hours ago I just learned that Lily now thinks that Sirius is proposing. You need to stop listening to him, if he keeps giving you these idiotic ideas you're never going to get anywhere with this."

"Sirius asking for the spell was Remus' idea," James stated quickly.

Arabella just glared in return. "I'm more concerned about the fact that you're actually trying to propose this way. Why can't you just ignore Sirius and listen to someone else?"

"What's wrong with his proposal ideas?" James asked through narrowed eyes.

"What are you two talking about in here?" Sirius asked as he gave James a fake shocked look and grabbed Arabella around the waist.

"We were debating on if we should poison your food or not," Arabella responded sarcastically. Lily gave the two a funny look, but then just sat down at the table in front of her blank glass.

**XXX**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Well, I've gotten into two schools, so I've got options right? Enjoy this next chapter. And thanks to everyone who beted it for me. You guys are pretty awesome!

………………………………………………

**Will You, Miss Evans? **

**3: In which Lily is very sick **

………………………………………………

James straightened his robes one final time and then reached out to knock on the worn door.

He was currently standing outside of Lily's flat. The ring was secured inside a pocket in his robes and in his left hand he was holding a bouquet that he had picked out especially because of the white lilies. In his right hand James was holding a carton of curry that he had slaved over all day.

"Who is it?" a gravely voice asked.

"James," he responded. He shifted the carton underneath his arm pleading with himself to be sure to not drop it.

The door swung open unexpectedly fast and James almost lost his balance. Luckily, he was able to maintain control of the carton of food, however, the flowers weren't so lucky.

The bouquet had landed right at Lily's feet. James tried to bend down to get it at the same time Lily did. Their heads bumped and James looked up to meet her eyes.

"It's nice to see you." James smirked as he rubbed his forehead. He handed the flowers to Lily.

That was when he realized that Lily didn't look herself. Her hair was pulled loosely back into a ponytail and her face seemed flushed.

"Are you feeling alright, Lily?" James asked as he stepped inside.

"I think I might have caught the flu. It's not much," Lily sniffled as if to prove her point.

The two moved into the kitchen where James set the carton of food down on the counter.

"I cooked." James smiled broadly. "It's curry."

Lily suddenly looked greener than she had when James walked into the room. In James' eyes, this wasn't a very good sign.

"Flower, are you alright?"

Lily nodded her head causing some of her hair to be freed from the ponytail.

"No, you're not," James observed. "Have you taken a potion yet?"

"I've been busy," Lily responded.

James gaped at Lily before moving her out of the kitchen and to the sofa. He made sure that Lily was resting with a pillow and a blanket he summoned from her room.

"I'm going to get you a potion. Do you feel up to curry?" James asked hopefully.

Lily shook her head.

"What about soup?"

Lily nodded gratefully.

"Tea?"

Lily smiled in response and rested her head on her pillow while James trudged back into the kitchen.

Arabella was already in the kitchen smelling James' curry. He glared at her and went about making soup.

"You went to a lot of work," Arabella finally spoke.

"It's alright." James brushed off the comment to avoid his own disappointment. He felt as if his heart had dropped into his stomach. He had spent so long trying to perfect the dinner and he had imagined how proud Lily would be of his cooking. After all, she had helped to teach him.

_That could be another possible scenario. _

James pushed the thought out of his mind. He had worked hard cooking but this was something that could easily be planned again.

"You're not the greatest cook, but it smells safe," Arabella teased as she eyed the curry.

"You can have it. Lily and I will be dining on chicken noodle soup tonight."

Arabella smiled sadly at James. 'If I were you, I would ask her tonight anyway. Lily isn't the type of girl who needs the fancy dinner or the big proposal. I think she would love for you to ask her right here right now."

"She's sick. I can't put her in a position like that," James protested.

"It's not an awkward position, James. I'm almost positive she'll be thrilled when you propose," Arabella reassured James.

"You're _almost_ positive." James stirred a cup of tea. "I put a sleeping draught in her cup of tea. She's not going to be in any mood to be proposed to tonight."

Arabella glared at James. "Why do you keep chickening out?"

"I'm not trying to avoid proposing!" James hissed.

Arabella just grabbed the curry and left the kitchen without another word. James didn't have anything to say to her retreating figure so he went about pouring the soup and in a few moments he was sitting beside Lily on the sofa.

"Are you feeling any better?" James asked tenderly as Lily drank her soup and tea.

Lily smiled. "Yes, thank you."

"Are you tired?" James asked with a yawn.

"I'm exhausted, but that's just my virus." Lily looked alarmed.

"What's wrong?" James slurred.

"Are you sure you haven't caught anything, James?" Lily asked as she eyed James.

"I felt fine a few minutes ago. I just made you soup and tea and mixed something in yours to help you sleep. I just had a hard day today," James continued to slur on, but Lily had already stopped listening.

"What did you put in my drink?" Lily asked. "James?"

James was already asleep on the sofa. His messy hair was flopped over his eyes and he was leaning back on the sofa, his arm resting right next to hers.

"What's wrong with him?" Arabella asked as she walked through the room with the empty carton of curry.

"He put something in my tea and then forgot which cup it was." Lily smirked.

Arabella laughed. "Do you think he'll ever grow out of doing things like this?"

Lily laughed and shook her head.

"I can see him doing this when you're old."

"What's that?" Lily asked.

Arabella watched her; she had been vaguely distracted by James' sleeping form. There really was no reason for James to be afraid, it was clear that Lily had learned to adore him as well. She didn't watch him in a way that would suggest a negative response to James' proposal, even if it were plain and boring.

"Can't you see James doing this when you're old?" Arabella asked again. She needed her own confirmation that Lily did think of a future with James. She didn't want to see James suffer, no matter how funny it would be.

Lily smiled for a second. "What makes you think we'll still be together when we're old?"

"Well, don't you want to marry him?" Arabella asked.

There it was, out in the open. James was knocked out and was certain not to hear this conversation. Lily would try to dance around the question and if it were necessary to calm her down, Arabella knew that the ring was in James' pocket and could easily whip it out.

_No, I couldn't ruin the surprise for Lily. She'd hate me, not to mention that James would personally kill me with his bare hands. _

Lily smiled. "I don't think he's planning on asking me."

"I'm not asking you if he's going to ask you, I'm asking what you want."

Lily didn't respond, but instead she looked back at James' sleeping figure. She pushed his hair back off his forehead. When Lily looked back up, Arabella had left.

**XXX**

"I have the best proposal idea," Sirius gushed.

"What is it then?" James grumbled as he caught Arabella's eyes. It was a look of fright, but she was attempting to hold in laughter.

"You should propose to her while you're shagging!"

James, Arabella, and Remus all stared at Sirius in a moment of complete shock.

"I am not shagging Lily!" James shouted. "You know that!"

"Well, you could shag her and then propose. At least she'd know you weren't just using her," Sirius offered.

Arabella looked at Sirius as if he were from another planet. "Are you crazy?"

"I'm serious!" Sirius laughed, but everyone else remained silent. "Is something wrong with my idea?"

"Well," Remus began. "Lily wants to wait until marriage and James is respecting her decision."

"Well, my idea will never work if they wait until marriage," Sirius retorted.

Remus sighed and continued. "Sirius, Lily would not appreciate James proposing in that way. I think we should just drop the act and have James just ask her."

"I agree with Remus," Arabella said.

Sirius ignored Arabella's comment. "James, Remus doesn't know what he's talking about. He's never been in a situation where he's going to propose and he doesn't know Lily as well as you and I do."

Remus glared at Sirius' back. "Arabella's Lily's best mate. She knows Lily better than you do. James is asking for our advice. I was friends with Lily before both you and James, so I don't think that you can claim you know her any better than I do."

Sirius hunched back into his chair and glared at the occupants of the room. "Why don't you propose while you're snogging?"

"That's just as ridiculous, Sirius," Remus responded.

"It's not ridiculous! Prongs and Lily snog all the time."

Arabella finally took over. "Sirius, I don't think Lily wants to be in the middle of snogging James and then have him propose. It just won't get the message across right."

"I think it would get the message across fine. I wouldn't mind being proposed to in the act of snogging," Sirius told the room.

Arabella rolled her eyes.

"The proposal is completely indecent," Remus began. "She wouldn't want that. She wants to be able to tell everyone how James proposed. She can't tell her parents that they were in the middle of snogging when he just sprung it on her."

"He has a good point," Arabella added.

James nodded. "Padfoot, I do want it to be special; I just don't think Lily would want me to propose like that."

Sirius finally agreed. "Alright, I'll work on another idea."

The others seemed satisfied and ignored Sirius huff about how bloody brilliant his idea had been.

"You didn't give it any bloody justice."

**XXX**

"Do you have any ideas?" James pleaded. He was standing in front of his parents. The room was oddly silent, which was due to the fact that James had left Sirius back at their flat. He didn't want any more ideas of proposing while he was doing something indecent. His parents didn't need to hear about those.

"Why don't you just try proposing the traditional way? I don't see what's so wrong with that," James' mother said. James was sure that times had changed and that the standards for proposing had become higher, but he wasn't sure how to break the news to his mother.

"I just wanted to do something different. I'm so lucky that she's even given me this chance to be with her. I don't want to mess it up," James mumbled.

"I'm sure you won't mess it up, honey. Lily loves you; she wouldn't mind a traditional proposal. I've always seen her as a girl who would prefer one," Mrs. Potter added.

"Why would you think that?" James asked.

"She's very private when it comes to her life, James. She doesn't strike me as the type of girl who's going to go gossip to her friends about how you proposed."

James had to admit that his mother had a point.

"Sirius thinks that I should make the proposal extravagant," James said.

"Sirius isn't going to propose to anyone anytime soon, I don't know if he's the best person to be taking advice from," Mr. Potter added with an affectionate tone.

"A lot of wizards are stepping up and trying to make their proposals more original. I don't want to disappoint Lily by making it plain," James admitted.

"What have some of your ideas been?" Mr. Potter asked.

"It doesn't matter, none of them have worked out," James mumbled.

"You've already tried to propose?" Mrs. Potter asked with concern.

"Well, not exactly, I was planning on proposing many times, I just never managed to get the question out," James explained.

"What have some of your ideas been?" Mr. Potter asked again.

"Well, first I tried to take her to Bermuda because I thought it would be a more romantic setting, she didn't want to go though. She wanted to know _why_ I wanted to go to Bermuda, as if I were trying to take advantage of her."

"What else would she think?" Mrs. Potter asked with a disapproving look.

"Her parents probably wouldn't have appreciated that either," Mr. Potter added.

"I've found that out now," James murmured. "I also tried to owl her a note while I was in the room because I had problems trying to work in how to ask her. Arabella figured that if she already had an idea of what I was going to ask it would make it easier. But my bloody owl flew into the window and didn't mail the letter."

Mr. and Mrs. Potter laughed at the story.

"I even tried to learn this complex charm so that the words would magically appear in the sky written in the clouds. Sirius went and had Lily teach him the charm; he pretended that he was proposing to Arabella. But then I didn't learn the spell right and it came out all wrong. So aside from the fact that I still haven't proposed, Lily now thinks that Sirius is planning on proposing to Arabella."

Mr. and Mrs. Potter laughed harder.

"It's not funny! I need your help!" James whined.

"I think you should learn from your mistakes, love," Mrs. Potter said.

"I'm not going to be trying those ideas again." James closed his eyes in frustration.

"I meant that you should try a different approach to proposing. I don't think that you're going to pull off something extravagant. I don't think Lily will like that. Maybe all these silly little mistakes are a sign that you shouldn't try," Mrs. Potter suggested.

"You sound like a kooky Seer," James sighed.

Mr. Potter spoke. "I agree with your mother, James. I don't think Lily wants an extravagant proposal. I think you should stick to something simple. You don't want to make your proposal public; it makes things much more complicated."

"What do you mean by that?" James asked.

"James, have you ever considered what you'd do if Lily said no? You don't want to put her on the spot in front of a crowd. You want it to be small and private. That's what she's going to want and I don't know how she'd react to an overproduced one that you're planning on using."

James just looked at his parents before finally announcing he had to be leaving.

**XXX**

"James, I've been thinking about trying to combine something different and a simple proposal," Arabella began. "I think I have a good idea."

"It's bloody brilliant!" Sirius added. James smiled. Sirius had been trying to get back on Arabella's good side for a few days now.

"What is it?" James asked hesitantly. His parents' warning had remained in his head causing him to shoot down most ideas that Sirius brought up.

"A scavenger hunt." Arabella smiled proudly.

"What?" James looked around the kitchen. Arabella seemed quite pleased with herself; Sirius wasn't making any complaints about how boring the proposal was, and Remus was sitting quietly without any reasons for why the proposal would be all wrong.

"Make a scavenger hunt," Arabella urged.

"All of you think this is a good idea?" James asked, almost afraid that one of them would burst out a complaint they had been holding in.

The room stayed silent.

"It's actually a very clever idea," Remus began. "I don't think Lily would want something over the top and this idea keeps the proposal between you and Lily, but also has some excitement to it. Plus, she'll be able to tell her parents."

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"This is enough for you?" James asked Sirius.

"I think it's brilliant," Sirius responded.

James sighed. "How would this work?"

"You could write the clues so that you send her to different places that have made a big impact on your relationship. It'll be really sweet," Arabella said. "And the final place can be where you're waiting for the ring."

"I'm no good with riddles," James mumbled.

"I wasn't planning on actually making _you_ write them." Arabella smirked.

She then promptly whipped out a piece of parchment and began to write out clues for James, who was staring helplessly at the table.

**XXX**

"Is that James' owl?" Arabella asked as a sleek brown owl flew into the room and dropped a letter on Lily's lap.

Lily nodded and gave the owl a piece of toast.

"What does he want?" Arabella asked with a perfectly inquisitive face.

Inside, however, Arabella was smiling. The plan was finally about to play out. Lily and James would be engaged by the end of the day and Lily would know all about Sirius' lie about proposing to her. She had to admit she was a little tired of Lily's indirect marriage questions.

"Do you understand this, Bella?" Lily asked as she handed over the note.

Arabella took the piece of parchment and quickly scanned the contents.

"I like coffee, I like tea, I saw you, and you saw me."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand."

"Maybe it's a scavenger hunt," Arabella suggested with a smile breaking out on her face. "That'd be so much fun!"

"What in bloody hell does this mean then?" Lilly asked.

Arabella smiled, she couldn't give away the fact that she knew the place so fast. "Well, you saw him there and it involves coffee and tea."

"I see him a lot of places that involve coffee and tea," Lily argued.

"Just think about it. I have to get into work."

Arabella Apparated from the spot before Lily could open her mouth to argue that it was Saturday and Arabella normally had the day off.

"Bloody hell!" Lily breathed as she went to read the letter once again.

**XXX**

Once Lily had set her mind to the task at hand she realized the place James was hinting at was the coffee shop they had reunited in. There, she had been handed a note, which had sent her to a Muggle park. She had since traveled to various restaurants and spots that she and James had visited and was currently standing at her own flat.

_Why would James have sent me back here?_ Lily wondered as she let herself into her flat to find it completely empty.

"James?" Lily asked softly. "Are you here?"

Lily sunk down on the sofa after discovering that James was not in her flat.

_What has gotten into him lately?_

**XXX**

"Bloody hell, Arabella, you said she'd be here by now. Where is she?" James demanded as he paced back and forth in his living room.

"I don't know, James, I thought she'd be here too." Arabella responded harshly.

"Maybe she's been attacked by Slytherins trying to foil your plan to pass on the Potter line," Sirius joked.

James glared at Sirius from behind his glasses. He wasn't in the mood to have Sirius joking about Lily being hurt or not showing up because she didn't want him to propose. He didn't need any more insecurities. He had already created enough on his own.

"Do you think it's possible she ended up in the wrong place?" Remus asked thoughtfully.

"That's true, maybe she missed one of the clues!" Arabella exclaimed. "We should go find her. We may be able to just pretend that you were late."

The group began to backtrack. The notes were always gone and Lily was never there.

"What if she's avoiding me?" James asked.

"She's not avoiding you. She bloody wants to marry you," Arabella responded angrily.

"Has she told you that?"

"She's told me enough for me to know that she'll say yes. Don't worry, James."

Without any other ideas of where Lily could be they Apparated back to Lily and Arabella's flat.

**XXX**

"Where have you bloody been?"

James, Remus, and Arabella stood shocked in the doorway to the flat.

"Well?" Lily demanded.

James looked sheepishly at Arabella and Sirius. "You've been here the whole time?"

"You've just sent me in a huge circle and now you ask me why _I'm_ still here? I was under the impression that I was taking this tour for a reason."

James shrugged.

"You know what, Sirius and I need to go check something in my bedroom." Arabella promptly grabbed Sirius' hand and pulled him away from Lily and James, who were standing with quite a considerable distance between them.

"What has this all been about?" Lily asked in a lower tone.

"Why have you been here?" James asked with a frown.

"You sent me here!" Lily shrieked.

"I didn't send you here. The note was clearly for you to meet me at _my_ flat."

"No, it wasn't." Lily crossed her arms.

"I wrote it," James retorted.

"James, you asked me out here," Lily gestured around the room. "How could you forget that?"

"No, Lily, I asked you out at my flat." James frowned.

_Why did she forget? Is this something I should take into consideration? _

"I think you're wrong."

"Lily, you Apparated into my flat at a mad early hour to demand that I ask you to be my girlfriend. I remember that quite well, I wasn't even fully dressed." James blushed at the thought.

Lily's eyes widened.

"You must've forgotten," James mumbled. Despite how much he wanted to propose to the woman standing in front of him, at the moment, he just didn't have the heart.

Girls always accused boys of forgetting dates and places that were important to a relationship, and here Lily had gone and forgotten one of the most important places in their relationship.

James looked up to meet Lily's eyes, they were glinting with some emotion that James didn't feel the need to read.

"I'm sorry I forgot," Lily said simply.

"It's alright." James shrugged as if it were no big deal.

"It's easy to forget things when you're preoccupied." Lily smirked.

James' mind was screaming that he didn't forget. He still remembered the tiny details. Snogging wasn't the only important thing to him in the relationship.

Lily seemed to have sensed what he was thinking and the glint in her emerald eyes became stronger.

At that moment the glint in Lily's eyes became crystal clear. She took a few steps towards him and pushed him solid up against the wall.

Once her hands had found their way into his hair, James realized that she remembered a lot more than he expected she did.

**XXX**


End file.
